


And the Sky Turned Black

by BagtheBagisnotaBag



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Alternian Empire, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 22:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13063311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BagtheBagisnotaBag/pseuds/BagtheBagisnotaBag
Summary: In which the Alternian Empire invades Earth in a spectacular exchange of violence, language, and culture. Told from the perspective of one human male and an adolescent Troll Mutant escaping his fate on his home planet. Includes insurmountable language barriers, injury and death at the hands of the savage trolls, comrade over fear for the humans' new overlords, and overwhelming odds that the human's leg will not make it in their desperate escape to a remote Earthian island.





	1. Death at the hands of troll jesus reincarnated

Dave stepped out onto gloom of the rooftop and looked up. Above him were hundreds of ships stretching far over the horizon. They were small and dark and big and wide and they came in so many different colours. The further he looked up just, the more he saw. There were layers and layers of vessels, all of them different, all of them unique, all of them like nothing he had seen ever before. 

Rather than seeing the glint of streetlight off metal they looked organic, they seemed to absorb the light in their ridges and points. Rather than seeing the seams of panels where pieces of machine connected, he saw the unbroken belly of a long blue ship far above him. 

Dave’s face was blank. He stood straight and staring. Unblinking. Eyes wide. Not that you could see his eyes under the shades. A roar of noise came from the streets and the people below, movement and fear and in the distance points of colour fell from the ships. They were far enough away that he couldn't quite tell, but they looked like eggs, spheres, pods. 

A dark shape dropped from the blue ship above him and with a twist of vision and force, the sky turned black. 

\---

The first thing Dave noticed was the pain. It ripped through his leg, left him dizzy, making the earth tilt beneath him.  Then he registered the cold concrete of the roof beneath his back. He must have fallen. 

Dave’s eyes were closed. There was a dull ringing in his ears, blocking all sound. The wind was hot and dry and smelled of smoke. It left a harsh cough in his throat that he swallowed down, not making a sound. His eyes were still closed, he had to get up, his breath was coming out in short quiet pants, he had to get up. Dave was already closing off his mind from the pain in his leg. He willed himself to move. He had to get up. 

Dave blinked up at the sky above him, brighter now. His shades had fallen to god knows where as the dark shape had come crashing down upon him. The skyline above him had changed. The ships were still there, daunting and never ending above him, but the dark blue ship had shifted.  Everything had shifted. He had to get up. The ships were drifting in slow patterns, dropping pods at intervals. Dropping pods. The thought pinged him but didn't quite connect. 

Everything felt slow, coming to him in instances, but he noticed the weight now, the crushing weight on his leg. With effort, he swivelled his eyes to look down along his body. A dense black shape was resting at his feet. On his feet. On his leg. It was huge, larger than others he had seen falling from ships far away, it seemed taller than him from his prone angle. The pod was ridged like the ship it fell from, coal black and warm. Dave forced himself into a sitting position, riding the wave of dizziness that swept over him. The black form of the pod was sitting in red. That was a lot of blood. His head felt swollen and heavy making his thoughts dull. He had to stand up. 

The moment Dave tested the weight of the pod, trying to lift it off his leg, a crack sounded from the other side of it where he couldn’t see. The sound vibrated through his leg in waves of pain causing him to give out an almost inaudible “Fuck” as the weight crushed his leg harder. 

Again, the weight shifted. This time in the better direction of fuckin off ‘a him. He had just enough room to move. His foot had been caught in one of the wells formed between ridges and so he only had to slide his leg sideways and out to get free. The material of Dave’s pants was soaked in blood, more than he had seen from injured inflicted during training with his brother. He had to get up. 

He couldn’t stand up. When he tried to lift himself to his feet, darkness overcame his vision and he tipped back down into a sitting position. Maybe he had hit his head when he fell. A small shape darted out from behind the pod and out of Dave’s line of sight, skittering and jerky in Dave's fizzy vision. There was a one hundred percent chance he had hit his head when he fell. That or something had come out of the pod and was now heading downstairs, either way he was fucked. 

This all felt like a fever dream. Dave should get back inside to his computer and check with his pals. He had to check that they were seeing these ships and darting shapes too. Yeah. That seemed like a good Idea. Dave was still feeling fizzy, the lights in the sky drifting in and out of focus and blurring together into one. 

He shouldn’t have tried to stand up before. Standing was a bad plan. Dave was lying back down on the ground. Sound sharpened and dulled around him, and the lights flashed and throbbed in time with his pulse. Then again standing up involved effort he just couldn't muster at the moment. At least the pain in his leg had dulled down since he stopped moving. No pain was good and he was still so dizzy. Yeah. Maybe he should rest here for a little longer, get his strength back. That sounded nice. Dave closed his eyes. 

\---

As Dave drifted back into awareness, the first thing he noticed was the pain. His leg had morphed into a stiff throbbing lump of uselessness. As he sat up, his brain struggled to keep up with his movement, lagging a step behind until it snapped back into place with a sharp throb. 

Even though it hurt more, Dave’s head was feeling clearer. He had the presence of mind to notice his lack of shades and look around on the roof to where they could have fallen. His new control over his own faculties also granted him the knowledge that, oh yeah, he’d had a phone in his sylladex this whole time and could have been badgering his chums – or anyone really – about what the fuck was going on before, during, and after that pod… thing fell on top of him. He could have messaged bro up to come to the roof to help him out. 

Dave took a moment to fish out his phone, and his old pair of shades. glancing around the roof had given him squat in the way of possibly broken eye coverings. Rather than spend his time limping (or crawling, he hasn’t tested his leg yet) around the roof looking for them he decided that the better course of action would be booking it back down the stairs and under cover where the chance of more giant space eggs falling on him and crushing his soft human body fell back down into the more reasonable ranges of ‘possibly unlikely but you can’t be sure’. 

Dave pulled out a katana to lean against and slowly dragged his crushed leg across the roof and down the stairs in short limping steps. He didn't know how late it was. For some reason he hadn't turned his phone on, even though it was in his hand. But now he wasn't in a good position to get a good gander it, gripping the katana for support as he was. The task of getting himself down the stairs was painful and mind consuming. His steps were slow and unsteady. The phone was clutched in the hand holding Dave up against the wall while the other hand dug into the handle of the katana and supported the rest of his unevenly distributed weight. Fuck. Walking, especially in a generally downwards manner, was hard. He should sit down. 

The floor came up to meet him faster than he anticipated. Fuck this dizziness shit, it was really harshing his flow. Even small movements were nauseating and unstable to the point where his relied upon skill of speed in a fight would be reduced to null. Dave lent against the wall to his right, sitting on the steps about halfway down to his apartment and remembered the phone in his hand. 

The screen was brighter than he could handle at the moment even with his newly deployed shades in place and even when he got used to the glare his eyes still didn't focus on the screen. The phone vibrated constantly and Dave realised it must have been vibrating while he struggled to get himself down the stairs. He was more out of it than he thought. 

Dave didn't want to end up passing out here on the stairs if he gave into his exhaustion. His progress with the phone was going nowhere with his vision still fucked. He struggled upright again by sliding himself up against the wall and pushing up with his katana. Every movement travelled through his dud leg, the pain increasing in time with his pulse but he pushed through, the pain could wait until he was safe inside where bro would take one look at him and sort it all out. Though he would rather avoid relying on his bro to fix his problems, at this point it was stupid to try and fix all this himself. He was a right mess. He needed help. 

Dave was most of the way down that stairs when he heard another crash – this time a thundering noise going down the side of the building. These pods were being dropped anywhere with no regards to where they landed. That one must have scraped Dave’s apartment building all the way down to the ground. This is how the world ends. With shitty otherworldly beings dropping loads on the freaked out populous below. Dave did not see this one coming. 

Dave somehow made it into the apartment without falling on his face and took stock of the room. It looked the same as he left it, puppets everywhere, shitty swords lying about. Bro was nowhere to be seen. He must be in another room but hell if Dave was going to go looking for him in his state. Dave called out into the empty apartment, “Hey Bro, A little help over here.” But no one came. Where could bro have gone in the middle of the apocalypse? 

Dave hobbled over to the futon and decided to try his phone again. 

\---

\-- CURRENT ectoBiologist [CEB] RIGHT NOW opened a memo on board ALIENS???.--  
\-- CURRENT tentacleTherapist [CTT] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.--  
CTT: Quite.  
CEB: rose! are you seeing the aliens too?  
CTT: If by aliens you mean has an otherworldly spacecraft appaired in the sky then yes, that seems to be the case.  
CTT: How are you holding out?  
CEB: gosh! i dont know.  
CEB: i was watching the news and suddenly they were saying that these ships appaired out of nowhere! they didnt detect them at all rose. they were just suddenly there, everywhere.  
CTT: That is troubling. So far, I’ve only seen one myself. It’s drifting over near mother’s lab. At first, I thought it was a ruse but this is real, isn’t it? This is everywhere.  
CEB: yeah i think so.  
CEB: hey, have you heard anything from jade or dave yet?  
CTT: No. Though I've pestered both of them.  


\---

Dave then noticed that both EB and TT's chumhandles were lit up and flashing with waiting messages. 

\---

CTT: There is nothing to be done. Neither of them have landlines. We will just have to hold our equine grievances and wait for their response.   
CEB: man i hope theyre ok.   
CEB: im outside now but i cant actually see any UFOs. Maybe there are none where they are either?   
CEB: i think im freaking out here rose. There are aliens rose! This is first contact!   
CTT: Huh.   
CEB: :?   
CTT: It's quite far away, but I thought I saw something dark drop from the ship. It might be a good idea to go back inside and see what those news channels are saying.   
CEB: yeah ok. There arnt any ships here anyway yet. Ill report back in a jiffy!  


\---

His vision held long enough to read the backlog of messages but when he tried to pop the phone keyboard up he couldn't quite tap the right box to manage it. There on the futon, his already shaky resolve to stay focused and awake, to get help, was wavering. There were more messages on the memo popping up but in his fumbling he managed to exit out of the app. This was too much trouble. 

A crash sounded from the other room, his bedroom? "Bro?" He croaked out coughing. The slight sound of movement from his bedroom ceased. The apartment was still. Dave had an inkling to investigate but from the blood loss to the crushed leg he just couldn't bring himself to manage it. He thumbed his phone. The echoing sound of pods crashing into distant infrastructure bouncing around in his skull. 

He had to contact someone. He couldn't just sit here bleeding out on the futon, though the bleeding must have slowed to a stop seeing as there wasn't a growing puddle of blood forming under him. He had to get a message through to someone who could help him. And that meant ignoring the pounding dizzying sway of his head, his urge to pass out. He thumbed his phone on. 

The pesterchum app was easy to locate, flashing as it was with incoming messages. He managed to open it after several false starts involving solitaire and the default music app. The same memo opened automatically. 

\---

CEB: i can see dads car! He just got back  
\-- CURRENT turntechGodhead [CTG] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.--  
CGG: Dave!!!  
CTT: Oh, thank goodness. You're alive.  
CTG: msrginaly  
CTG: i coyld use some helo pls  
CGG: dave?  
CTG: i may be dying just slightly  
CTG: fucl  
CTG: conld someine ring an abbulance  
CEB: holy shit dave what happened?  
CTT: I'm ringing one now. Hold on.  
CTT: Keep him talking.  
CTG: yesy es im right here. Il keep chattung it up wilh you all thiuh im vrey dizzy.  
CGG: ok ok. Listen dave can you tell me what happened. Where are you hurt?  
CTG: my leg  
CTG: it git crushed by a pod thing  
CTG: btu my head hurta like a buitch to  
CTG: i thbink its the blood lodd  
CEB: well fuck thats not good  
CTG: whtas the sitgation yoll guys good  
CEB: im fine. Dad just got home and is freaking out barricading the house even though we havent even seen any ships near us  
CGG: theres no sign of this aliens invasion here. As far as i can see there are none near my island. and rose has only seen one but its pretty far away from her.  
CTT: Dave, where is Bro? Why can he not call you an ambulance? Is he hurt too?  
CTG: thats good oyu gyus. In glab yure safe  
CTT: Dave. Can you find bro?  
CTG: no i havnt seen him  
CTG: he nust be oyt?  
CTG: therews something in teh apartysnt butu he would answr id i actuallt had the balls to eyll atim so it must be smene lese  
CEB: WHAT dave who else??  
CTG: its makig noise in my bedron  
CTT: I can't get through to emergency services. The line is all blocked up.  
CTT: Dave, do you think you could get downstairs. Go to one of your neighbours flats, get them to help you.  
CTG: thasn a good iead myt i dont thinki can moce  
CTG: it hurts 

\---

Dave had slumped down onto the futon by this point. His body was stiff as he tried not to move his injured leg. The pounding in his head had increased. Looking at his phone screen was making him nauseous. He dropped his phone to his chest and rested his head back against the futon. It didn't help, his stomach was rapidly plummeting. He took a few slow even breaths to try and stave it off before his eyes rolled back in his skull and he passed out again.


	2. Is that my blood? I'm sure I have more blood than that

When Dave next awoke it was to gray on orange eyes staring back at him. Dave froze, or at least he didn’t move from his previous unconscious position. He was lying on his side on the futon and still had his shades in place. The eyes staring at Dave couldn’t tell through the lens that Dave was staring right back at them. He didn't think the thing had noticed he was awake yet. It was just staring at him. At least he hoped that it hadn't noticed he was awake yet. What the fuck. It just looked like a weird gray boy. 

The boy had messy black hair with two frankly weird yellow and orange protrusions poking out of his do. His skin was slate, just slate. A single monotone of gray that went down into... a turtleneck? Seriously what the fuck. Was this a prank? This couldn't be a prank. Dave was in too much pain for this to be a prank. Maybe one of the many neighbors Dave had never met had been in the middle of playing some weird ritualistic dress up when he had heard Dave's call for help and hadn't had enough time, or the fucking decency, to change back into normal sane human clothes before coming up here to save Daves shitty dying ass. 

That made since. He didn't know what every wackjob got up to in their spare time and frankly was in no position to ask. 

The staring was getting annoying though. 

Dave shifted, testing out his leg that he had just noticed was hurting a lot less, and watched in amusement as the boy startled back from him, hitting his head on the TV behind him. He made a weird growl clicking sound that made Dave pause. Huh. He didn't know that sound could come out of people. He looked afraid of Dave. Why did he look afraid of Dave? 

Dave shifted towards a sitting position, moving slowly as his head pounded "Hey dude, what happened. I'm not sure how you got in here but I really appreciate the... uh..." Dave had been halfway up when the boy had darted off behind him and, with a slam, back through the door to the bedroom. "...Help." Ok? What was with this guy. 

Dave sat up anyway, letting his head pound for a second before checking out his leg proper. One side of a pair of nun chucks had been bound to his leg with power cables. Man, had that boy done that? He must have. That was resource gathering at its finest he had to say. That boy was the Bear Grylls of the concrete jungle. That was impressive. Dave heard some knocking and shuffling about before the back rooms again went quiet. 

The nun chucks and cables were a strange choice what with the bandages in the bathroom but at least he hadn't gone for a katana for a makeshift splint, he was smarter in Dave in that sense. Seriously using a katana as a walking stick while delirious what was he thinking? He could have sliced his hand open. Bro might not teach much about sword safety but that was just obvious. 

Must have been the delirium. 

He could see through the gaps in the cables that he hadn't bled through anymore of his jeans. Granted they were still stained with blood they were just stained with old blood. Old blood in a familiar pattern as if the bleeding had both started and stopped at the time of impact. Maybe it just stopped on its own. 

Dave was feeling slightly batter after his impromptu nap. His head was clearer and most of the dizziness had gone. Was he just no longer feeling the effects of the blood loss? That had been a lot of blood staining the bottom of the pod. He thought he would just keep feeling worse. He didn’t think he was going to wake up. 

Maybe the boy didn't think he would get up either which would be why he ran in fright when Dave did stir. That made sense. Dave seriously had to find out what the guys problem was. Maybe he didn't speak English and was in shock from the whole alien invasion thing. That also made sense. Man, Dave was pulling a whole life and backstory out of his ass for this guy, he should really just ask him when the boy decided to come out of Daves bedroom. 

Dave finally snapped out of his thoughts long enough (he must still be slightly delirious) to notice the vibrating happening at the region of his right ass cheek. He just right up and passed out on his friends there didn't he. Time to reassure them. 

\---

CTG: back   
CTT: Thank goodness.   
CEB: holy fuckballs dave where did you go!? Its been over three hours! We thought you were gone dude!   
CTG: whoa really three   
CEB: yes really!   
CTG: i may have fainted just a little bit   
CTG: but i think the break from reality helped whatever head thing was going on   
CTG: look at me typing with proper spelling and shit   
CTT: What is your status pray tell?   
CTG: the prognosis seems much more promising than when i was half out of my mind with pain and delirium   
CTG: im in my apartment leg still broken head still attached   
CTG: im in slightly less pain than before   
CTG: and I am so glad that dizziness shit from earlier has died down i almost think that was the worst part of it   
CTT: Well that’s a relief.   
CTT: Because sending help from our end fell through completely.   
CTT: When I finally got through to the emergency services they couldn't get an ambulance to your location.   
CTT: Huston is where a major force of The Invasion had dropped down which had caused the ratio of emergence vehicles to emergencies to tilt unpleasantly.   
CTT: coupled with the fact that no one there could drive easily amongst all the aliens and their debris, well...   
CTT: We all though the worst for you.   
CTT: You didn't seem very coherent before you stopped responding.   
CEB: we thought you were dead dave! D:   
CTT: John and Jade were distraught.   
CTT: I, of course, kept my head about me.  
CEB: pshhh rose was freaking out with the rest of us   
CTG: speaking of jade wheres she gone off too   
CTG: you guys would have said something if we had lost her   
CEB: her grandpa called her away to pack the seaplane   
CEB: which apparently they have one of   
CTG: they do live of their own island bro how else do they get out of there   
CTG: by car?   
CEB: I dunno dude  
CEB: I just never thought about it   
CEB: when has she ever talked about getting off the island   
CEB: im not sure why theyre packing it anyway   
CEB: they seem pretty safe where they are   
CEB: the ailens haven't reached them yet   
CTG: speaking of   
CTG: you guys seem to know a lot more about them now   
CTG: whatve i missed   
CTT: Enlighten us as to what you do know so far.   
CTG: a rainbow of ships in the sky dropping black pods on people   
CTG: I havent looked at any media coverage   
CTG: all that knowledge is all firsthand experience   
CTT: So, you haven't seen what they look like?  
CTG: no   
CEB: oh man youre missing out   
CEB: these guys are great   
CTG: ive failed to get my gander onto our first contact with extraterrestrial life   
CTG: what a travesty   
CTG: I should turn the tv on its right in front of me   
CTG: brb   


\---

The TV may be right in front of Dave but it was still a few meters away and he was not looking forward to testing out his good man's splint. The TV would have to be switched on manually. Bro could have hidden the remote anywhere. 

Dave wondered why Bro wasn't back yet. 

First, Dave tried standing. Immediately a ripple of nausea and pain passed through him from the slight amount of weight he had put on his leg, even splinted, threatening to knock him back to unconsciousness. So, no standing. He could work around this. He might just need to steal Bro's swivel chair. 

First though, he should try crawling the shorter distance to the TV. Dave managed to carefully lower his bad leg to the floor using the futon and his other leg for leverage. His injuries still didn't like even that slight change in elevation and Dave had to just sit there at the foot of the futon for a while taking deep breaths, trying not to throw up. 

From there Dave didn’t have to drag himself far to reach the on switch and then change the TV from XBox mode, where Bro's character had been stuck in the middle of a grind, to the hardly used cable mode where the image of a female news reporter stood in front of a burning city. "- assessing the destruction of the downtown area. -" 

It was tuned to the shitty local news channel. Talking about damage to one of the local schools Dave didn't really care about. Dave changed the channel to a more national one. Two people were talking on screen but Dave tuned them out in favor of staring at the image projected between them. 

It was humanoid with hair, two arms, and two legs, but its skin was sooty black like the pods had been. It was huge and hulking, staring right at the camera with piercing orange and green eyes. It's clothing, and yes the alien was wearing normal people clothing, was almost shaped like a short black dress with twisting green lines giving it more shape. And on its head, were two wide orange horn like protrusions. 

The image flicked to another, similar, photo of aliens. This one with two in the picture. 

\---

CTG: what the fuck   
CTG: why do those things look so human   
CTG: holy shit i think theres one in here with me   
CEB: wait what?!   
CTG: what do i do rose cant even walk   
CTT: Are you being attacked?   
CTG: no i   
CTG: i think its hiding in my bedroom   
CTG: it must have been what came out of that pod thing that fell on me   
CTG: when I woke up it had put a splint on my leg   
CTG: like what kind of alien does that   
CTG: i thought it was one of my neighbors id never met wearing some weird costume   
CTT: Well I'll be dammed.   
CTT: Apart from falling debris from the landing pods hurting people, and people injuring themselves in the panic, the aliens haven't outright attacked anyone.   
CTT: Of course, this is America. Our people have been shooting at the aliens with whatever individual weapons they have with little success.   
CTT: Luckily our good friend Obama hasn't pulled out the nuclear weapons yet.   
CTT: That would be disastrous seeing as the aliens have landed amongst the populous and the number of ships in the sky both stretches back past the moon and is high uncountable.   
CTT: Instead he has opted to try and communicate with the aliens and has reassured the world that a team is being set up as we speak.   
CTG: thank fuck for Obama   
CTT: My sentiments exactly.   
CEB: my ghost busters forum is going crazy   
CEB: apparently there are other people who had aliens crash into their homes but the aliens tend to just stand there making weird clickety noises and sort of keeping an eye on anyone still in the house   
CEB: i havent heard of one hiding from people yet they tend to just stand there looking menacing   
CEB: i havent heard of them helping hurt people for that matter either   
CTG: huh   
CTG: i wonder whats with that guy   
CTG: he didn’t seem that menacing   
CTG: actually he was kinda small i thought he was a kid   
CTT: You may be entirely correct in that guess.   
CTT: We don’t know if they have children but so far, they have been huge and confident in whatever physical position they occupy.   
CTG: im not sure what to do with that information   
CTG: should i like try and get it back to its mothership   
CTG: im not really in a position to do anything right now   
CTG: im sort of just lying on the floor hear the tv   
CTG: i had to crawl over here to turn it on   
CEB: don’t worry dave! We will get help to you   
CEB: is your bro not back yet?   
CTG: nah   
CTG: hes still absent   
CEB: have you tried calling him? You have your phone right?   
CTG: huh   
CTG: i never thought of that   
\-- TG is a idle chum! -- 

\---

Dave didn't tend to contact Bro on his phone. Ever. Bro was never gone for long and if he was it was to DJing gigs late at night or he was just hiding up in the loft. But when he calls through to bros phone for the first time in years it's to the sound of bros generic work ringtone coming from the kitchen. A startled banging sound comes from the direction of Daves bedroom as if someone in there knocked something over. 

Welp. It seems finding out where Bro had gone off to was a bust. If Bro didn’t have his phone on him then he wouldn’t be able to contact Dave either from wherever he was. There was no chance in hell that he remembered Daves or his own number as scarcely as he used his phone. Dave would just have to wait until he got back from wherever he was stuck right now. 

\---

CTG: Bros phone is still here   
CTG: so wherever he went i cant contact him   


\---

Dave looked down at his bad leg stretched out in front of him from where he was sitting leaning up against the tv stand. The bottom of his pants were drenched in blood from the crash but he wasn't bleeding. Bro may not use his phone much but he kept it on him. If the phone was here then Bro was never far. So, where was he? "Bro?" He called out tentatively, looking up at the loft hatch above the kitchen. "I really need you right now Bro. I've fallen and I can't get up." He strained for any sound from above, for the telltale swish of displaced air from a flash step. 

Nothing. 

Nothing but the slight sounds of an alien boy hiding in the other room. That felt like a more immediate problem then his missing brother. Now what was he going to do about that? 

\---

CTT: We will just have to redouble our efforts in getting help to you from our end.   
CEB: are you guys watching the news right now? I think they found the leader   
CEB: theyre in new york like the city   
CEB: the american communication team thing is approaching a huge purple ship   


\---

Dave quickly tuned back into what was happening on the TV behind him, positioning himself back against the futon so that he could see the screen. He would sit on the futon, but even moving from the base of the TV to the foot of the futon had caused sharp pain to start pulsating up his leg. Trying to leverage himself up there would not be worth it. 

On the screen was a shot of a five people, scientists it looked like, walking through the streets of New York city. Their path was empty of humans occupying the street though people could be seen looking out of windows from above. Instead the streets were crowded with the aliens. All of them were taller than the human scientists with the same ashy black skin, pitch black hair, and varying orange horns. The sky was thick with their ships going up in layers. 

One alien jeered at the passing camera man making the camera angle shudder back. Dave just caught what looked like a nearby alien hauling the jeering one back, looking at it with annoyance. 

The five humans were heading towards the largest concentration of aliens Dave had seen so far, all of them were standing under the shadow of a large ship with the brightest purple coloring around. The alien's clothes were black with patterns of blues or purples, none of the greens, golds and browns he had seen more of further back in the crowd. Must be how they ranked themselves. 

The group of scientists didn't have any trouble getting to where the leader must have been as the aliens parted around them, clearing an obvious path forward. 

As the crowd moves it became obvious who the leader was. They were the largest alien in the group and wore the same bright shade of purple from the huge ship above. They were surrounded by other aliens, almost in a semicircle around them. They, and only a few of the others around them, had flared fin like ears adorned with gold hoops and studs. The attention of the surrounding aliens was focused on them and the approaching humans. 

Compared to the other aliens, who grinned and jostled each other, who moved amongst each other, this alien stayed still. Even their demeanor was still. They didn’t smile. They stared straight into the camera and didn’t blink. 

The humans walked closer. 

A message scrolled past the bottom of the screen "Our new arrivals: Friend or Foe?"

**Author's Note:**

> For people who have trouble translating Dave's exhausted typing into coherent sentences here are the translations
> 
> CTG: marginally  
> CTG: I could use some help, please  
> CTG: I may be dying just slightly  
> CTG: fuck  
> CTG: could someone ring an ambulance  
> CTG: yes, yes, I'm right here. I'll keep chatting it up with you all though I'm very dizzy.  
> CTG: my leg  
> CTG: it got crushed by a pod thing  
> CTG: but my head hurts like a bitch too  
> CTG: I think it's the blood loss  
> CTG: what's the situation. Ya'll guys good  
> CTG: that's good you guys. In glad you're safe  
> CTG: no, I haven't seen him  
> CTG: he must be out?  
> CTG: there's something in the apartment but he would answer if I actually had the balls to yell at him so it must be someone else  
> CTG: it's making noise in my bedroom  
> CTG: that's a good idea but I don't think I can move  
> CTG: it hurts


End file.
